ROHWER(AP) — Vivienne Schiffer spent her early childhood playing in the fields and forests near her home in Rohwer.

One of her favorite spots was a small cemetery. There were 24 small graves, and in the middle of the burial ground stood a tall obelisk.

Beautiful characters were etched into the stone. Cherry blossoms, lotuses, and Japanese sayings were carved. It didn’t seem strange to her at the time, but she later wondered how it got there.

She’s now putting the final touches on a documentary film about the Rohwer Relocation Center, one of 10 concentration camps set up by the U.S. government to inter Japanese Americans during World War II. It was one of two camps in Arkansas, the other was in Jerome.

A retired attorney living in Houston, Texas, Schiffer titled her film “Relocation, Arkansas” after the postal designation given to the camp.

“It wasn’t just an experience, it actually turned into a place,” Schiffer told students at Black River Technical College on Wednesday. “It makes me so angry ... greed was the issue.”

She was the keynote speaker at the college’s inaugural “Fred Korematsu Day” celebration, the Jonesboro Sun reported. Korematsu, who died in 2005, fought his internment in court during the war.

Schiffer’s mother, Rosalie Gould kept documents, pictures and other artifacts from the camp in the years following the internment. Most items were kept in Gould’s home in McGehee were she was the town’s long-time mayor.

How more than 8,000 Japanese ended up in concentration camp rural Arkansas began in the late 1880s.

Japanese immigrants migrated to California before the turn of the century to work, BRTC history instructor Dr. Jan Ziegler said. Many were industrious, hard workers who started their own businesses.

California’s mild climate and fertile soil made it a prime place to grow fruits and vegetables. Japanese immigrants gained control of this lucrative market.

Whites grew increasingly suspicious of the Japanese and wanted them gone, Ziegler said. Signs that read “Japs keep moving, this is a white neighborhood” were common.

The U.S. government passed several laws to restrict the number of Japanese immigrants to stem their economic prowess, but by 1941 they still controlled a large portion of the fruits and vegetables trade.

When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, many in the white business community found a chance to push the Japanese out. President Franklin D. Roosevelt caved in to immense political pressure and signed executive order 9066 which ordered all Japanese living on the West Coast to report to relocation centers.

Fear that some of them may have been spies, or working with Japanese government to plan an invasion of the West Coast were the reasons given for the internment. But it was more about money than anything else, Schiffer said.

Federal Bureau of Investigation head Jay Edgar Hoover even said at the time they posed no threat.

In April 1942 the government began rounding up the 120,000 or so Japanese who lived in Washington, Oregon and California. Eight camps were created in western states, but two were built in Arkansas.

Japanese farmers and businessmen tried to turn over their lands and holdings to neighbor and friends in hopes that when they returned they might get their livelihoods back, Ziegler said.

Most never did.

When the Rohwer camp opened it instantly became the fourth largest city in Arkansas, only it wasn’t a city, Schiffer said.

“There’s not other was to say it — it was a concentration camp,” she said.

Homes were made from wood and tar paper. The camp had a rudimentary school, hospital and police force. It even had a Buddhist temple built by the internees.

The youngest internees seemed to enjoy the camp much more than their older counterparts, Schiffer said. Children got to swim, fish and experience a place they’d never been before, according to some letters and journal entries that have survived.

For older Japanese the camp was miserable, she said.

Many were separated from the friends and family. Japanese culture is patriarchal, and many men who lost their businesses and means to earn an income never recovered, Schiffer said.

During filming Schiffer visited with several families who were interned there. Former President Bill Clinton even sat for an interview with Schiffer.

Rosalie Gould became an impassioned advocate for camp survivors, and tours were organized in the 1980s, Schiffer said. Japanese Americans from California would trek to rural Desha County to visit the camp, of which little remains except for the cemetery.

Tours often included a stop at Gould’s house. Some locals didn’t like the influx of visitors, and Gould received death threats for her efforts.

“She’s quite a woman,” Schiffer said of her mother.

Californian Fred Korematsu gained national acclaim when he fought internment in federal court. In 1944 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against him.

Years later secret Justice Department documents surfaced that stated there was no threat from Japanese Americans. Because of those documents, his record was cleared in 1983.

Efforts are underway to preserve as much history from the camp as is possible, Schiffer said. Her goal is to have “Relocation, Arkansas” air on public television.

This is my last comment on the matter. Ms. Schiffer's use of the term "survivor" to describe those placed in internment camps is wholly inappropriate. Yes, they were interred, perhaps wrongly. However, they were provided food, shelter, clothing and medical care. Their internment was not a life or death situation--in no way does the term survivor apply.

If you left a NAZI concentration camp or a Japanese POW camp alive, then you are survivor. The attempt to place the internment of Japanese by the U.S. on the same level with NAZI concentration camps and Japanese POW camps is just misleading.

I read the article again and I would be remiss if I didn't add another comment.

Ms. Schiffer stated: "There's not another way to say it--it was a concentration camp." There is another way to say it--it was an internment camp. The Germans (NAZIs) redefined the term concentration camp to mean--death camp. The redefining of the term now invokes a highly emotional response, as well it should. Because of this, I believe the use of the term concentration camp is inappropriate. A better description is internment camp.

Her comment seems to infer that German concentration camps and U.S. internment camps were alike. More directly, her comment is misleading and a feeble attempt to inflame emotions toward her cause. For the record, German concentration camps and U.S. internment camps are not similar in any manner.

Also, if you would like to know what kind of country Japan was around the World War II time period, please read Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang. It will take your breath away...and turn upside down the belief that there is good in everyone.

I don't necessarily support the internment of the Japanese, but I do understand how it came about in that Japan was certainly using its citizens to spy on the U.S.

However, when I compare the conditions in which American, British, Australian, Dutch and other POWs to include civilian prisoners (men, women and children) were held by the Japanese, I am surprised that the Japanese internment is even being discussed. Execution, torture, beatings, starvation, horrible sanitary conditions, inadequate or no shelter, no medical care, slave labor, etc. was the Japanese way. They were brutal and without mercy.

In my opinion, by comparison, the Japanese interred by the U.S. were only inconvenienced. But that's just my opinion.

Recommend you read The Knights of Bushido by Lord Russell of Liverpool. It covers the Japanese War Crimes Trials.